


An Afternoon Adventure

by daretogobeyondtheunknown



Series: Little Adventures [1]
Category: The Half of It (2020)
Genre: F/F, Future Fic, Light-Hearted, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24595366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daretogobeyondtheunknown/pseuds/daretogobeyondtheunknown
Summary: Of all the ways Aster imagined her afternoon going, this was not it.
Relationships: Ellie Chu/Aster Flores
Series: Little Adventures [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1807165
Comments: 12
Kudos: 174





	An Afternoon Adventure

"We should grab coffee sometime. What’s your number?" 

Of all the ways Aster imagined her afternoon going, this was not it. 

The day itself had started ordinarily enough. Like every other morning, Aster spent it perched before her easel. Not everyday was as creative as the next with some feeling more like hours of endless misery than glorious epiphany. But Aster had learned a long time ago that art was an awful lot like baseball: each strike only served to bring her closer to that next home run. 

Not that Aster played baseball. Or even watched it for that matter. But she digressed.

“That’s a really sweet offer,” Aster started her voice oozing with apprehension, “But, well… El, a little help here?”

“Oh, it looks like you’ve got this. I’ll just,” Ellie stage whispered as she motioned back towards the street they had wandered down. 

“I swear to God,” Aster ground out, “If you leave-”

The smirk on Ellie’s lips was infuriating and yet at the same time utterly adorable. It was just the right mixture of playful and mischievous with that undertone of sarcasm Ellie had mastered years ago.

“You know, I think I saw a bookstore over there,” Ellie continued with a Cheshire grin, motioning to what they both knew was most certainly not a bookstore, “I can just-” Ellie inched back a step though her eyes remained captive in Aster’s gaze.

“Oh, your friend’s really nice. I mean, we could just grab one now?”

The hopeful inflection in his voice felt like the head of an arrow sinking into her mere mortal flesh and, narrowing her eyes at Ellie’s retreating form, Aster prayed silently for whatever strength it might take to let this poor young man down as gently as possible, “While I appreciate the offer,” Aster began, running the Rolodex of rejections she had grown all too familiar with using, “I can’t.”

Well, so much for Rolodex of practiced rejections and her, apparently, unanswered prayer because, Lord have mercy, Aster had just spewed out the weakest rejection to date. 

“What. Why? I mean, your friend is okay with it.”

“Yeah, your _friend_ ,” Ellie parroted with an eye roll and verbal air quotations, ceasing her backward momentum, “Thinks this would be a _great_ -”

“Fine. If you think this is such a great idea _you_ go with him,” Aster countered, her hands flung high above her head as a physical manifestation of her vexation.

A look of horror washed over Ellie’s face. “What? That’s a terrible idea.”

“Oh, hey, no need to fight-”

Ignoring the stranger in their midst, Aster crossed her arms over her chest, right hip jutting out to the side. “Oh? But it’s okay if I go?”

“No,” Ellie gagged but quickly coughed and amended, “I mean, unless you want to?”

Old habits die hard, Aster thought, as she found her eyes rolling. Unfolding her arms in favour of taking Ellie’s hand in her own, Aster stated, “I don’t. I’m more into that barely repressed longing and those Russian doll layers.” The corners of her lips tugged upward.

“Hey,” Ellie protested, “I’m better now!”

“Russian doll-”

Aster snorted, squeezing their joined hands, “You wear long underwear to bed.”

“I said better, not divine intervention.”

“I think-”

“Right, heathen.” 

“Yeah, well-“

“We’re not going for coffee, are we?”

Both heads turned in surprise. The young man blinked owlishly back. 

“No. You’re not.” Aster felt her heart flutter.

“Okay, but you-“

“I’m going to stop you right there. First, Aster is her own person and she can make decisions for herself. Just because I joked about the idea, which I shouldn’t have, doesn’t mean you should have ever taken that as permission for someone else. Second, and I know she can totally speak for herself, but she’s not interested.” Intentionally or subconsciously Ellie shifted to position herself in front of Aster as if Ellie were a shield, albeit a tiny one. It was adorable. Even if Ellie might object.

“Hey, I was just asking.” The man withered back; hands held palm side out in a sign of goodwill.

It wasn’t his fault, Aster thought. He had bolstered up this courage only to be swept into an orbit he never even knew existed. “We know. Sorry. It’s sweet but,” resting her chin on Ellie’s shoulder Aster smiled warmly. Her fingers danced down the sleeve, double layered of course, to find their rightful home intertwined in Ellie’s. “This is Ellie Chu. When I was seventeen, I asked God to give me a sign. Instead, He gave me a letter and then this beautiful woman. I didn’t see it at the time. We were just kids. But I promised myself, if the opportunity ever came again, I would take it.”

Aster could imagine the way Ellie’s lips had most likely curled upward and how, if it were any other setting, she might absentmindedly be nodding along. Aster smiled. This might not have been the way she imagined her afternoon going, but with Ellie by her side, Aster wouldn’t change a thing.

“Our wedding’s next month. We might be able to make room for one more, if you’d like to come.”

“Aster!”

**Author's Note:**

> Do you think Mr. Stranger got an invitation?


End file.
